The health problems associated with the widespread problem of obesity need not be elaborated. A need exists for pharmaceutical treatments which are effective for the treatment of obesity in mammals with a minimum of undesirable side effects. By "obese warm-blooded animal" is meant a human or other mammal which is more than 10 percent overweight as judged by contemporary medical standards. Many treatments have been proposed for obesity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,539 to Henkin describes a treatment wherein anorexia is produced by administration of histidine to the obese patient. However, no effective pharmaceutical treatment is believed in widespread use due to a lack of either lasting effectiveness or of undesirable side effects.